High density electronic cooling triangular shaped microchannel device

ABSTRACT

An isosceles triangular cross section shaped microchannel-cooling device conducts a working fluid for the removal of heat from a heat source. The triangular shaped microchannel provides an increased thermal transport coefficient for improved heat transport with an improved mass flow rate. The microchannel-cooling device is well suited for removing heat from electronics, semiconductor components, and systems.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of electronics and semiconductorprocessing. More particularly, the present invention relates to theformation and use of fluid transport microchannels for coolingelectronics and semiconductor components.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The packing density of electronic components on chips continues to rise,thereby increasing the energy dissipation per unit surface area. Inorder to decrease the resulting high temperatures, fluid filledmicrochannel devices are used for thermal energy transport. Previousmicrochannels have had limited channel shapes or configuration of shapesto increase the heat removal capacity. Past investigations ofmicrochannel with forced convective flows have used rectangular channelshapes. Normal heat removal rates are on the order of 3.4 W/cm²-° C.This low heat transfer rate forces electronic components to operate athigh temperatures with reduced operational life.

The capability of cooling technology for leading-edge microelectronicproducts is being pushed to the limit due to the ever-increasing heatflux generating components mounted on high-density electronic chips. Inorder to remove the large heat fluxes generated by these components,two-phase devices, such as heat pipes and two-phased pumped fluid loopswith a single microchannel, are being considered. Microchannel heatsinks for high heat flux electronic cooling has been used. The heatremoval capability of such microchannel devices is based on the largeheat transfer surface-to-volume ratio of microchannels. Highsingle-phase heat transfer coefficients can be achieved at the expenseof enormous pressure drops in microchannels. Two-phase flow microchannelheat sinks are capable of removing heat fluxes generated by high densitypackages in excess of 200 W/cm². The major disadvantages associated withthe use of two-phase cooling devices is that the system needs to avoidinstability when operating close to the critical heat flux point andneeds to minimize surface temperature gradients between the microchanneland the upper surface of the heat sink.

The single-phase loops have incorporated methanol, refrigerant-124,FC-87, and water. With water as the working fluid, a heat flux of 790W/cm² could be dissipated in a rectangular grooved microchannel. Thecorresponding substrate temperature rise was 71° C. above the inputwater temperature. This represented a maximum downstream thermalresistance of about 0.09° C./W for a 1.0 cm² heated area. Both laminarand turbulent flow regimes offer a method to lower the total thermalresistance of a microchannel. Two analytical approaches have beenemployed to evaluate the velocity profile of microchannel flows. Onemethod is a microanalysis method in which the microchannels areindependently investigated. The second method is a macroanalysis methodthat simulates the microchannel stream as a flow through a porous mediaand typically incorporates a volume-averaging technique and a form ofthe Darcy equation. The macroanalysis method requires a uniform crosssection. Thus, any geometric channel shape that would cause porosity tobe a function of one or more coordinate axes is not an appropriate usageof the porous material analysis assumption. Microchannel heat removalprocesses and simulations have been used to accurately model andsimulate the volume flow rates for heat removal performanceverification.

Microprocessor components, such as silica chips, are generating highheat flux levels. This corresponds to high temperatures and thecorresponding reliability issues for these devices. Optimization ofrectangular shaped microchannel grooves utilizing water as the pumpedsingle phase fluid have been used in order to decrease the temperatureof microprocessor components. Heat transfer solutions from rectangularmicrochannel shapes for heat sinks have limited energy transfer rates.While extensive work exists for the rectangular microchannel crosssectional area, the rectangular microchannel cross sectional area offersincreased packing density with large flow rates but with limited heattransport capabilities. These and other disadvantages are solved orreduced using the invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide cooling using microchannels.

An object of the invention is to provide a low average surfacetemperature through high heat energy transport of a microchannel forcooling electronic components.

Yet another object of the invention is to cool electronic components byforming isosceles triangular microchannels through which flows a coolingfluid.

The invention is directed to a microchannel pumped fluid loop havingtriangular channels arranged in a sawtooth configuration. Thisorientation maximizes the absorption of thermal energy by the flowingworking fluid. The microchannel surface area to microchannel volumeratio, and, the mass flow rate of the pumped fluid determines the heattransfer coefficient. The sawtooth configuration offers an improvementto 4.5 W/cm²-C° for the heat transfer coefficient for heat removablecapability with the triangular microchannel geometry. This largeincrease in the heat transfer coefficient allows high heat removal fromelectronic components with operation at a substantially lowertemperature offering extended life of the electronic components. Thechannel packaging takes advantage of the high packing density of themicrochannels for providing a large surface to volume ratio for-solid tofluid heat transfer. The microchannels have a large heat conduction areathat effectively spreads heat throughout the device resulting in lowsurface temperatures. The sawtooth configuration allows for high heatconduction through an interstitial area. This high heat conductionenables heat to travel freely to the entire convective surface area.This surface area is juxtaposed between the solid portion of the deviceand the fluid carrying flow microchannels. The triangular shape allowsfor a large number of microchannels being efficiently packaged togetherthereby enabling a high mass flow rate of the pumped fluid. The fluidtransport enables removal of thermal energy from the electroniccomponent or system. The higher the mass flow rate, the greater heatremoval of the device with a subsequently lower resulting temperature.The velocity distribution of the fluid has a maximum flow rate close tothe heat flux surfaces for providing a high heat removal rate. Thesurface area to volume ratio of the microchannel is large so that heatis effectively absorbed into and transported by the working fluid withlow fluid frictional losses. The triangular microchannel configurationincreases the packaging density of fluid transport channels forincreased heat transport capacity of electronic systems. The triangularmicrochannel configuration increases the heat transport capacity whilereducing differential temperatures for cooler running components atuniform temperatures. This reduced and uniform temperature results in anincrease in reliability and component life. These and other advantageswill become more apparent from the following detailed description ofthe-preferred embodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a microchannel sawtooth cooling device.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a cooling device fabrication process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

An embodiment of the invention is described with reference to thefigures using reference designations as shown in the figures. Referringto FIG. 1, a microchannel sawtooth cooling device includes alternatingisosceles triangular flow microchannels. Between the alternatingtriangular microchannels are formed alternating trapezoidal interstitialmaterial. The microchannels and interstitial material are disposedbetween a top cover and a bottom cover. The top and bottom covers arepreferably made of glass, but other covering materials may be used aswell. Alternating upwardly and downwardly pointing microchannels areseparated by a gap distance.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the triangular microchannels can be formedusing conventional semiconductor processes and device fabricationprocess. The fabrication process may start with a silicon wafer that isfirstly masked and then etched downward forming every other downwardlypointing triangular microchannel. The top cover glass is then bondedover openings of the opened downwardly pointing microchannels. The waferis then flipped and etched downward again, in a repeat process, forforming the upwardly extending microchannels. The bottom cover glass isthen bonded over the openings of the upwardly extending microchannels.The triangular microchannels form a sawtooth configuration withalternating upwardly and downwardly pointing triangular microchannelshaving a regular gap distance. Current etching techniques reduce surfaceroughness to a minimum and readily allow for the creation of equilateraltriangular grooves. The geometry of the microchannel triangular groovescan be arranged in different triangular configurations, includingupwardly pointing, downwardly pointing, and alternately pointingconfigurations. In all three cases, the cross sectional area of themicrochannel groove is triangular, and preferably has an isoscelestriangle cross-section.

A seminumerical analysis of the effects of design parameters on thethermal performance of triangular groove microchannels can be used todemonstrate functional utility. The aspect ratio, cross sectional shape,channel configuration, and the effective thermal resistivity of theintegrated system consisting of the cooling device and attachedelectronics, are parameters that determine the effective heat transferof the microstructure. The sawtooth pattern yields the highestconvection coefficient at 4.46 W/° C.-cm². Thus, the analysis is appliedto the triangular geometry for a single-phase pumped fluid loop withwater as the working fluid with the substrate being silica with amaximum pressure drop of 206.8 kPa that has been identified as a limit.Parametric analysis can be used to determine the optimal channel sizeand the gap distance between the channels. The heat transfercoefficient, based on the average temperature of the substrate along thetop or bottom cover glass, for various configurations can be computedfor identifying the optimal geometry of the microchannel heat sink. Asingle-phase flow correlation can predict thermal operations fordetermining the liquid velocity distribution within the microchannels.The velocity distribution in a fully developed laminar flow in anequilateral triangle having a side, a, can be described by a velocitydistribution equation.${u\left( {y,z} \right)} = {\frac{{- {\mathbb{d}\hat{p}}}/{\mathbb{d}x}}{2\sqrt{3}a\quad\mu}\left( {z - \frac{a\sqrt{3}}{2}} \right)\left( {{3y^{2}} - z^{2}} \right)}$

In the velocity distribution equation, u is the velocity in the flowdirection along the height of a microchannel in cm/s, d{circumflex over(p)}/dx is the pressure drop along the length of the triangular channelwhere {circumflex over (p)} is the pressure in Pa. The term, a, is theside dimension of equilateral triangle in microns μm. The term μ is theviscosity in Pa-s. The term x is the height direction of a microchannel.The term y is the length of a microchannel. The term z is the width of amicrochannel. The terms x, y, and z are Cartesian coordinates. The totalvolume flow rate Q in cm³/s is given by a flow equation.$Q = {\frac{a^{4}\sqrt{3}}{320µ}\left( {- \frac{\mathbb{d}\hat{p}}{\mathbb{d}x}} \right)}$

A constant heat flux of 100 W/cm² is applied uniformly to the coverglass for simulating an electronic heat source. The working fluid entersthe microchannel at 0° C. The heat dissipated from the electroniccomponents on the cover glass is modeled as applied uniformly over thecover glass. The triangular microchannel sides can be varied, such asbetween 60 μm to 439 μm. The 439 μm channel allows for a 380 μm channelheight. The gap distances between microchannels may vary from 0 μm to 60μm. The gap distance has an effect on the average surface temperature. Afin effect is a function of the average surface temperature fortriangular grooves with sides larger than 160 μm. Two competing factorsthat give rise to the fin effect are the change in conductivity of thedevice and the variation of surface area for receiving the applied heatflux. Due to the increase in gap distance, the silica interstitialconstituent of the device increases for allowing the heat flux appliedat the surface of the silica to travel more effectively to the entiremicrochannel flow surface and then be convected into the working fluid.Thus, the resulting drop in the average surface temperature is afunction of the gap distance that may be preferably between 1 μm and 10μm. An increased gap distance provides for increased total energy inputinto the device. The variation of average surface temperature changeswith the mass flow rate. An increase in the length of the microchannelincreases the heat transport to the flow channel. However, at largedimensions, the fin effect overwhelms the device operation, and, theaverage surface temperature rises. The fin effect becomes morepronounced as the channel dimensions grow. The change in the averagesurface temperature, based on a 0° C. inlet temperature, is on the orderof 25% when the channel size grows from 60 μm to 80 μm. The same sizevariation represents an increase in the mass flow rate of 40%. Theeffect of the increased mass flow rate is countered by the increase indistances required to transport the energy to all surface areas of themicrochannel. Hence, the corresponding percentage surface temperaturedrop is less than the 40% increase in the mass flow rate.

The average convective heat transfer coefficient for the microchanneldevice is defined by a heat transfer coefficient equation.{overscore (h)}=q _(in)/(T _(s,avg) −T _(i))

In the coefficient equation, {overscore (h)} is the heat transfercoefficient in W/° C.-cm², q_(in) is the applied heat flux per unit areain W/cm² of the heat source, T_(s,avg) is the average surfacetemperature in ° C., and T_(i) is the inlet temperature of the coolantin ° C. The change in the heat transfer coefficient is a function oftriangle size and gap distance and the variation of groove layout. Ingeneral, the heat transfer coefficient of the chip decreases as the gapdistance between microchannels increases. The heat transport capabilityreaches an optimal value for a small gap distance configuration due toconvection domination of the microchannels.

The influence of the convective contribution to heat transportdiminishes as the heat conduction dominates for large gap distances thatare orthogonal to the length of the microchannels. As the gap distanceincreases, the heat transfer efficiency increases due to an increase inheat transfer area and conduction along the microchannels. Hence, thereexists an optimal value for the microchannel size and the gap distancein the design of the microchannel for high density electronic cooling.Hence, the microchannel device performance is dependent upon manyfactors including conduction through the silica and through the workingfluid, convection into the fluid filled channel, fluid velocitydistribution within the microchannel, and the microchannel shape.Optimization of the microchannel configuration is dependent upontransporting the heat effectively into the fluid flow of themicrochannel and transporting the fluid out of the device. Themicrochannel has a short distance from the convective surface having ahigh heat flux, to the highest fluid velocity point within themicrochannel fluid flow.

A thermal network model, based on the mass flow rate and specific heatof the fluid, can be generated for the substrate and the channel.Various SINDA subroutines can be used to solve the heat transferproblem. The subroutine SNSOR within the SINDA analyzer is used toobtain the steady-state solution of the governing nonlinear partialdifferential equation using a network equation.${{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{n}{G_{ij}\left( {T_{j} - T_{i}} \right)}} + {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{n}{A_{i}{F_{ij}\left( {T_{j}^{4} - T_{i}^{4}} \right)}}} + Q_{I}} = 0$

In the network equation, the term A is the cross sectional area of themicrochannel in μm², F is the radiation view factor, G is the linearconductance in W/° C., n is the total number of thermal nodes, Q is theheat source in watts W, i is a subscripts for node being measured, j isan attached node, and T_(i) is a nodal temperature in ° C. The analysisuses a constant heat flux of 100 W/cm₂ that is applied uniformly to thecover glass as the water enters the microchannel at 0° C. The triangularmicrochannel sides are 439 μm for a 380 μm channel height with gapdistances between the microchannels varying from 0 μm to 60 μm.

The gap distance has an effect on the average surface temperature. Thechange in average surface temperature, based on a 0° C. inlettemperature, is on the order of 25% when the channel size grows from 60μm to 80 μm. The same size variation represents an increase in the massflow rate of 40%. The effect of the increased mass flow rate iscountered by the increase in the distances required to transport theenergy to all surface areas of the microchannel. Thus, the correspondingsurface temperature drop is less than the 40% increase in the mass flowrate. Other factors, such as larger length scales required to conductenergy into the fluid interior influence the ability of the system toabsorb energy.

In general, the heat transfer coefficient of the device decreases as thegap distance between channels becomes larger. This is due to theincrease distance required to transport the applied thermal energy fromthe cover glass to the flow channel. As the size of the channelincreases, the thermal energy removal is enhanced by convection due tothe enlargement of the channel cross-sectional area for increased fluidflow and heat transfer. For example, channel sizes may vary from 60 μmto 200 μm. However, beyond the 200 μm size, the combination of channelsize and gap width provides less capability for convective heattransfer. The variation in convective energy transport capacity is morepronounced for a triangular microchannel with small gap distance, forexample, between 5 μm to 10 μm for a 200 μm channel height, due to therestricted energy flow between microchannels and through theinterstitial material. The smaller gap dimension retards energytransport into the lower channel regions. The retarded energy transporteffectively reduces the convective capacity of the device. The heattransfer coefficient reaches an optimal value for a 200 μm microchannelheight with a 6 μm gap distance. As the channel size exceeds 200 μm, theheat transfer coefficient is lower initially for small gap distances,but increases rapidly as the gap distance increases.

The heat transport capability reaches an optimal value for a small gapdistance configuration due to convection domination of the microchanneldevice. The effect of convective heat transport diminishes as the heatconduction dominates along the microchannel for large gap distances. Asthe gap distance increases, the heat transfer efficiency increases dueto an increase in the heat transfer area and conduction across the widthof the microchannel. Hence, there exists an optimal value for thechannel size and the gap distance of microchannel for high densityelectronic cooling.

With a 300 μm sided equilateral triangle, with a gap distanceprogressing from 1 μm to 40 μm, the axial location is 0.5 cm. The zeroheight location is the surface at which the heat flux is applied at themidpoint of the channel. The energy is restricted from entering thelower portion of the device by the small gap distance. This isobservable from the lower temperature and temperature gradient exhibitedwithin the region of a 150 μm height and a 90 μm width as compared tothe upper thermal energy application region. A small percentage, lessthan 25%, of the applied heat flux is absorbed in the lower region ofthe microchannel for the 1 μm gap distance. As the gap distanceincreases, more of the lower channel portion engages in the absorptionof the applied thermal energy. For gap distances above 10 μm, littlevariation is had in the overall uniformity of temperature or temperaturegradient within the silica substrate. Likewise, temperature gradientsthroughout the substrate immediately adjacent to the fluid channel havemarked similarity. However, the increase in gap distance also carriesthe increase in the thermal energy applied to the device system. Thus,an overall increase in the device temperature is experienced as the gapdistance increase beyond 10 μm. When more of the flow surface area iscloser to the applied heat flux surface, larger temperature gradientsare created at fluid flow interface at the surface of the microchannel.The highest fluid flow velocity is close to the surface of themicrochannel. Thus, energy is removed more efficiently close to thesurface of the microchannel resulting in higher temperature gradientsfor improved thermal energy removal.

The present invention is directed to triangular microchannels forefficient transport of heat energy. The smaller the microchannels, forexample, those microchannel less than 160 μm, the fluid is morerestricted along the microchannel for reduced thermal transport. As themicrochannels grows excessive in size, some portions, specifically thecorners of the microchannels, have comparatively large thermal energyflow restrictions of the fin effect from the upper thermal energyapplication region to the lower microchannel portions. Betweenexcessively small and excessively large microchannel sizes, there is anoptimum thermal transport performance. Various triangular microchanneldevice designs can be used for improved thermal energy transport fromsemiconductor components and systems. Those skilled in the art can makeenhancements, improvements, and modifications to the invention, andthese enhancements, improvements, and modifications may nonetheless fallwithin the spirit and scope of the following claims.

1-13. (canceled)
 14. A device for removing thermal energy from a system,the device comprising, a microchannel extending a length and having atriangular cross section for receiving and conducting a working fluid,the triangular cross section defining a triangle having three equalsides, a cover for enclosing the microchannel for conducting the thermalenergy from the system, and interstitial material surrounding themicrochannel, the interstitial material conducting the thermal energyfrom the cover to the working fluid in the microchannel, theinterstitial material having a trapezoidal cross section.
 15. The deviceof claim 14, wherein, the working fluid is a refrigerant.
 16. The deviceof claim 14 wherein, the working fluid is water.
 17. The device of claim14 wherein, the triangular cross section has a height of less than threehundred and seventy microns.
 18. A device for removing thermal energyfrom a system, the device comprising, a plurality of microchannelsextending in parallel to a length and each of the plurality ofmicrochannels have a triangular cross section for concurrently receivingand conducting a working fluid, the triangular cross section defining atriangle having three equal sides, a cover for enclosing the pluralityof microchannels for conducting the thermal energy from the system, andinterstitial material surrounding the microchannel and disposed betweeneach successive pair of the plurality of microchannels for forming a gapdistance between each successive pair of the plurality of microchannels,the interstitial material conducting heat from the cover to the workingfluid in the plurality of microchannels, the interstitial materialhaving a parallelogram cross section.
 19. The device of claim 18wherein, each of the plurality of microchannels is aligned to each otherand point in a same direction.
 20. The device of claim 18 wherein, thegap distance is less than sixty microns.
 21. The device of claim 18wherein, the triangular cross section has a height of less than threehundred and seventy microns.
 22. The device of claim 18 wherein, each ofthe plurality of microchannels are aligned to each other and alternatelypoint in alternating directions, and the cover comprises a top cover anda bottom cover for respectively enclosing the alternating microchannelsfor containing the working fluid within the plurality of microchannelsduring flow of the working fluid through the plurality of microchannels.